BP Rejoices, Can Blame Halliburton for Gulf Oil Spill

October 29, 2010

Perpetually shady company Halliburton has come to BP’s aid, sort of, by saying that they failed to do a critical test on the cement used to seal the well in the Gulf. Which then, of course, blew. In fact, tests done by the company showed the cement to be “unstable.” It all sounds like a shitshow version of the blame game:

Halliburton said Thursday that that successful test was performed on a mixture different than the one eventually used. While some tests were conducted on the new formulation requested by BP, those tests did not include a foam stability test, the company said.

So, in conclusion: Halliburton fucked up. BP fucked up by letting Halliburton fuck up. There were numerous other fucker-uppers. And the ocean got fucked up. Halliburton blames BP; BP blames Halliburton. But Halliburton, by and large, is the more “evil” company — formerly led by Dick Cheney, facing criminal liability in Nigeria, etc. — than BP (debatably), and so maybe this is a BP win. Because if there’s one thing you really need to have with regard to a massive environmental catastrophe, its’ a scapegoat.